An Analysis of the Experiences of Residents Affected by the Major Flooding from an ICT Perspective

Contemporary digital technologies play an important role in crisis communication, particularly during preventive measures and in response to natural disasters, such as sudden, unforeseen floods, during which maintaining communication among people can be a matter of life or death. The increasingly powerful and unpredictable weather phenomena make the topic of using information and communication technologies in flood prevention, response, and recovery an ever more important subject in the academic discourse. The primary objective of this article is, therefore, to analyze the role that digital technologies have played in communication during the most recent major flood in Poland in September 2024. We are interested in the experiences of residents regarding their need to use IT systems and their assessment of these systems' effectiveness at various stages of crisis management. Both cases of effective use of digital technology in flood situations and the limitations resulting from infrastructural, social, and technical barriers will be discussed.